Worship with Rev. Ben
Today’s worship with Rev. Ben began with a lively game of Captain’s Orders. In the game, forgiveness was straightforward—a simple cue to face the window—but in real life, forgiving someone is often much harder. Rev. Ben explained that one of the things Jesus taught us is that forgiveness can be challenging because we may not always have the right perspective. The children then listened to The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, which highlighted that true forgiveness comes from the heart. Through this parable, Jesus illustrated the importance of showing others the same grace and forgiveness that we receive. Afterward, the children engaged in a thoughtful discussion, exploring key questions such as: What did Jesus want people to learn about forgiveness from the parable? and How could this story help you in situations where you need to forgive others? The discussion encouraged the children to reflect on the value of forgiveness and how it can bring peace to their lives and relationships.
Reception Picture News
This week in our class worship we have been looking at Picture News and thinking about the terrible wildfires that are happening in Los Angeles. We talked about how hard it must be for the people who live there to flee their homes and sadly thought about the people who have lost their lives too. Not only this, but the animals who are seeking shelter from losing their habitats. We finished by saying some ‘please’ prayers to ask God for help during this difficult time.
Reception: Class Worship
We started our worship with our trinity. Lisa from Blackburn Diocese then asked us to repeat a prayer after her- God is amazing, all of the time, Amen. We listened to a story from the Old Testament called God sends fire. It made our eyes go wide and our mouth go wow! Bishop Jill explained the meaning of the story. Fire is a strong image in the bible and it represents the fiery love of God. When we ask for God's fire from heaven, we are asking for our hearts to be filled with his love. It is the sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit. We prayed and learnt together the Makaton sign for fire. We finished our worship with a song we learnt yesterday in singing worship called 'Who is the king of the jungle'.
Friday Celebration Worship
Today, we started our Celebration Worship by reflecting on another busy week in school. This week, we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr's birthday and thought about how we can all make a positive difference in our world. We have enjoyed focusing on the theme of building each other up as part of our Year of Prayer, Reception, Year 1, 2 and 4 have enjoyed dance and gymnastics sessions led by Rothwell Arts. Reception have enjoyed a visit from Rev Ben to learn about the role of a vicar and we have enjoyed various after-school clubs such as basketball, multi-sports, foodie club, Rocksteady and choir. We then congratulated Will, Hollie and Charlie in EYFS and KS1 and Arabelle, Daisy, Charlie and Rosie in KS2 for making a fantastic start to the Spring term by working extremely hard across the curriculum, always striving to improve and demonstrating our Christian Values and the Barny’s 4Bs. Furthermore, we congratulated Year 2 and Year 5 on being our amazing attendance winners this week, India Mill as our overall value award winners this week with 750 points and our Year 5/6 football team who represented our school amazingly well last night in the DPSSA football league against Ashleigh and St James’. We then congratulated Ella for achieving her Stage 2 swimming certificate for swimming across the pool with no armbands, Freddie for being awarded with his 10m swimming certificate, Callie for achieving her Stage 5 swimming certificate, Thomas for swimming an incredible 50m, Lyla for being a super gymnast and achieving a silver medal, Haydn for being awarded a huge gold trophy for his skilful tackling in football, Lydia for being awarded with Olivia at Rainbows for showing super respect and tidying up, Leonora and Iris for participating in a recent gymnastic competition and demonstrating great skill and Brooke for being selected for Blackburn Rovers Girls’ team. To end our worship, we prayed for peace in the world and said thank you for all of the things that we are lucky enough to have. We then sang ‘Build Up’ and thanked those who could attend celebration worship. We thank the rest of our school family for all of your continued support and we wish you all a lovely weekend.
Worship with Rev. Matt
Today’s worship with Rev. Matt began with an engaging vote about which activities take the most time to prepare for. Rev. Matt then shared a parable told by Jesus, illustrating how we pray and connect with God. The story featured two men who went to a temple to pray: a Pharisee, who proudly listed his good deeds and a tax collector, who humbly asked for forgiveness. The children reflected on the contrasting attitudes of the two men, learning that prayer is not about boasting but about speaking honestly and sincerely with God. Rev. Matt emphasised a powerful message from the parable: Those who make themselves great will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be made great. This served as a reminder to approach life with humility and gratitude, encouraging the children to think about how they communicate with God and with others.
Reception: The Role of the Vicar
Reception class welcomed Rev Ben into class to talk about how a vicar is special to the Church. Rev Ben shared a video with the children showing how Jesus’ disciples were ordinary people just like him. He brought a bible, a chalice and the oil used to baptise people to show how vicars help people to learn from the Bible and how they welcome people into the church family. Rev Ben brought in his stole that he wears in Church. The children all had a turn at trying it on if they wanted to. Thank you so much Rev Ben, we loved your visit!
Collective Worship- Year of Prayer
This morning in our Collective Worship we focused on our prayer for this week of the Year of Prayer from Blackburn Diocese. We discussed and shared our responsibilities in school and at home such as cleaning our rooms, loading the dishwasher, helping look after younger siblings, helping with the cooking and cleaning, counting values points (Heads and Deputies) and planning and leading sports events (Sports Leaders) . We then said together a special prayer for our responsibilities and discussed how God is always with us during those responsibilities and having a smile on face whilst carrying them out benefits others. Mrs Ham then shared the responsibility of selecting songs to sing and choosing children to demonstrate the actions at the front. The children chose to sing 'Life is always better when we share it with each other', 'Waymaker' 'My Lighthouse' and 'Build Up'. Build up is also the theme for our class Year of Prayer this week too. Our WOW group members informed each class of the special build up prayers they would be saying this week.
Year 3- R.E- How did the arrival of Jesus change the world?
This afternoon in R.E, we explored the meaning of the word 'Emmanuel,' which means 'God with us.' We then listened to the lyrics of the song 'Emmanuel, God with Us' and created a list of what Christians believe about Jesus based on the song's message. We then engaged in a discussion about how Christians believe Jesus continues to make a significant impact on the world today. Some of the suggestions were, he provides us with hope, inspires individuals to live good lives and help others, and teaches us the importance of loving everyone. To further illustrate the concept of God's presence in our lives, we watched a captivating video of the traditional tale of Papa Pános, a heartwarming story that beautifully demonstrates how God is always with us.
Worship with Rev. Ben- God is always listening
Rev. Ben's worship began with an engaging activity exploring creative ways to get people's attention. The children enthusiastically shared their ideas, suggesting: making gestures, creating signs, standing up, dancing, doing something funny, shouting names and waving. Rev. Ben then transitioned to discussing how, in Jesus' day, people had various ways of trying to get God's attention. He explained that Jesus told his people that it was very simple to get God to listen. The children watched a short clip that highlighted some of the ways people believed they could gain God's attention. They concluded that God is always listening, no matter what and that Jesus taught there’s no need for special rituals to communicate with God. Instead, Jesus encouraged everyone to talk to God anytime, anywhere and to speak to God like a friend. Following this, the children engaged in a thoughtful discussion. They explored the question, "What did Jesus say we should do when we pray?" and shared their personal responses to the idea, "If you could ask God for one thing, what would it be?" This reflection helped deepen their understanding of prayer and the nature of their relationship with God.
Year 1 RE- The Calling of the Disciples
This week in RE, Year 1 explored the story of ‘Jesus Calls the First Disciples’ through a sensory story. We listened to this story whilst exploring various objects such as figures for Jesus and the fishermen, water to represent the lake, a boat, fish and fishing nets. After we listened and explored the story as a whole class, the children acted out this story in smaller groups. After the story, we thought about why the fishermen including Simon might have wanted to be Jesus’ special friends. We said that we thought it might be because the men could put their trust in Jesus, because he was powerful and could perform miracles, because he was a good person and because he was also very forgiving.
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Year 3- Class Worship- Is it our responsibility to protect local wildlife?
During our worship today, we learned about Birdwatch, a special event where people help scientists learn about birds. We talked about whether we have a duty to protect the animals around us. The Bible teaches us to appreciate all of God's amazing creations, and that every creature has a special place in God's plan. We then thanked God for the wonderful world He made and showed our gratitude to those who work hard to study and protect wildlife.
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Year 4 - RE: What is Prayer?
New year, new RE topic in Year 4. This half term we will be exploring prayer and what it means to different people of faith. We began our unit with a twist on the silent gallery. There were various questions posted around the classroom and the children had to walk around the room in silence and record their ideas. This activity gives a great baseline assessment of what the children already know and where we can take their learning. We will be using this tool again throughout the unit to help the children’s spiritual exploration.